Word Origin & History

gesture c.1410, "manner of carrying the body," from M.L. gestura "bearing, behavior," from L. gestus "gesture, carriage, posture" (see gest). Restricted sense of "a movement of the body or a part of it" is from 1551; fig. sense of "action undertaken in good will to express feeling" is from 1916.

Example Sentences for gesture

But Shenac put his words aside with a gesture of indifference.

Mr. Dill mumbled as he swung his arms in the gesture of swimming.

His gesture, his courage, the look in his eye, would have made the wildest pony quail.

Stuart waved aside the extended hand with a gesture of annoyance.

She imagined some great, vague gesture; not an incident, but a gesture; and it hung in the air suspended like a shadow.

The man stretched out his arms with a gesture of passionate longing.

That done, the class took up the double task of recitation joined to that of gesture.

He was about to speak again, had not Tomb silenced him with a gesture.

A word, or a gesture, which in ordinary living would be commonplace, acquired a meaning and a significance all its own.

She made a gesture of repulsion, but I took no notice of it, and went on.